Spinning-top.



UNITED S RICHARD ANDREW LANGERMAN, OF LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY.

SPINNING TOP.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 688,655, dated December10, 1901. Application filed April 15, 1901. Serial No. 55.876. (Numodel.)

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, RICHARD ANDREW LAN- GERMAN, residing at Louisville,in the county of Jefferson and State of Kentucky, have made certain newand useful Improvements in Spinning-Tops, of which the following is aspecification.

It is my object to provide an improvement 'n the class of conical woodentops which are adapted to be spun when thrown with due force by theunwinding of a cord or string duly coiled about them and held fast inthe hand. To this end I provide the wooden body of the top with a metalcap or cover and secure the latter by a spike which passes axiallythrough the body and is constructed with an enlarged conical head havinga fiat portion that abuts the truncated end of the topbody.

In the drawings, my preferred form Figure 1 is a side View of of top.Fig. 2 includes a sectional view of the body of the top and aperspective of the cap and the spike adapted for attachment thereto.

Referring to the drawings, (1 indicates the conical wooden body of thetop, I) the concavo-convex cap thereof, and c the metal spike, which isadapted for application to the body a. The latter has a central axialpassage or opening a, in which the stem of the spike c is adapted to fitWhen thus inserted, the enlarged conical head 0 of the spike abuts thetruncated end a of the topbody a, and the stem of the spike projects farenough through the cap I) when applied to and covering the conical topof said body Ct to permit it to be. riveted down on the cap, and thussecure all the parts a b c firmly together, The flat portion of the head0 of the spike serves as a support and abutting surface for the top-bodya when in use, and the cap I) protects and forms an ornamental appendageof the head of the body a, which it is designed to entirely cover. It isparticularly useful in the game known as plugging, in which the woodenbody is liable to be battered, indented, cracked, or split by strikingcontact with other tops thrown by the players The weight of the head 0of the spike places the center of gravity of the top comparatively low,and it serves to prevent the body a being cracked or split by repeatedconcussion on hard surfaces.

What I claim is- Thespinning-top herein described comprising a conicaltruncated wooden body having an axial passage and having its large endor crown curved gradually from side to side,- the spike inserted andpassing through said axial passage and provided adjacent to its pointend with a conical portion whose end forms a shoulder to abut thetruncated end of the body and whose sides are sloped to coincide withthe sides of the body, and a protective sheet-metal concavo-convex cap@011 forming closely to and covering the larger end of the body andextending at its outer edge nearly to the outer edge of the wooden body,the spike being secured to the protective cap, all substantially asdescribed whereby the wooden body is clamped securely between thespike-shoulder and the protective cap and is thereby strengthenedagainst splitting and is protected at its butt-end by the cap whichextends over the same, substantially as set forth.

' RICHARD ANDREW LANGERMAN.

Witnesses:

ROBERT E. HEFFERNAN, MATH. WEIXLER.

